


WizardTale

by Tsskyx



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 09:17:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19971664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsskyx/pseuds/Tsskyx
Summary: There are many ways to summarize this work. Some would say it is a headcanon-loaded fan fiction, or a "fix fic". Some would call it the author's personal interpretation of the Undertale story. I am simply calling it... a theory of everything.Quick overview:- A free continuation of Undertale's storyline. Expect many references and connections to the original game.- Post pacifist route, canon Undertale (no, it is not an AU where everyone is a wizard, nor is it a Harry Potter crossover).- There shall be many OCs and lots of world-building. It is taking place at the surface, after all.- Includes a complex magical system that rejects the game's meta mechanics.- Prepare for some elaborate plot twists, this is not going to be a simple slice of life story either.- References to other works and AUs may appear in this work.Dii ambules inter nos.





	1. Introductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an introductory chapter.

**[Here is a link to the original introductory chapter, on DeviantART.](https://www.deviantart.com/tsskyx/art/WizardTale-Tsskyx-s-Undertale-AU-Introduction-656234842) **

**[Here is the DeviantART repository for this story, along with some related art.](https://www.deviantart.com/tsskyx/gallery/62995837/wizardtale-fanfiction) **

**[Here is me babbling about this story's core premise online.](https://www.reddit.com/r/UndertaleAUs/comments/5bedx0/curated_fan_fiction_list_part_1/df2b8v7/?st=j2p9tkpj&sh=3b6ebfa6) **

(This link contains some mild spoilers to the story. It's nothing significant, as I don't really mind revealing the obvious.)

**[Here is me doing the same thing yet again.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Undertale/comments/b8y6fp/a_reintroduction_of_my_fan_fiction_wizardtale/?st=jyhf6hnk&sh=1280c604) **

(You should definitely read this, even if it too spoils a few things. Again, I don't mind, I just want you to understand what this story means to me.)

If these links and text posts have gotten you properly hyped, then it's time to begin. While I cannot guarantee that these chapters will be released frequently, I can guarantee that I will write about what is directly on my mind. This is the culmination of my love for Undertale, its characters and its lore.


	2. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because every story needs an intro.

A long time ago, two races ruled over the world, humans and monsters.

Humans, with their physical bodies and ruthless minds, were much more powerful than any monster could ever be. Yet, the two races lived in harmony.

One day however, the true abilities of monsters were revealed. Fear entered the humans' hearts.

They attacked the peaceful creatures without any warning.

The monsters couldn't resist. They surrendered and were sealed underground with a magic spell, woven by seven powerful wizards.

What happened next, no one knows for sure.

The said wizards disappeared, and the tribe living in the area was swallowed by an expanding empire from the west.

The story of monsters turned into a myth. Everything magical, everything about the history of monsters and magic, was forgotten.

Or so it may seem. A small group of people from the empire found several artifacts previously belonging to the monsters.

They didn't know their origins, but they realized their importance and hid them from the eyes of mankind.

Soon, these people have turned into a cult, shifting from place to place and scavenging for artifacts, as huge empires around it rose and fell.

And whenever someone spoke about strange mythical creatures living on this planet thousands of years ago... they were silenced.

Their actions led to the creation of many urban legends and myths, and even to a supposed disappearing of a child...

This is their story.

_"Look, I don't know who told them. The humans were never supposed to know this..."_

_..._

_"Mhm. Well, anyways, now we have to decide their fate. Who is for helping them?"_

_..._

_"Okay, now, who is for leaving them alone until the humans are ready to accept them again?"_

_..._

_"Alright, now, who here understands that they will never accept them, and that the only way to end this is to exterminate them all?"_

_..._

_"Ah, I see... guess I am the only one with a shred of common sense left..."_

_"We're not letting you do this..."_

_"What, you think you can stop me?"_

_"We can refuse to give you our artifacts. Without all seven of them, you can't do anything."_

_"In that case... I'll shall take them by force."_

_"My friend, where are you? You still have that one ring I really need right now!"_

_..._

_"There you are!"_

**_!!!_ **

He woke up, completely startled. It even took him a while to realize what's happening. Apparently, he just had a nightmare. A proper, vivid...

Wait, no, nightmare is not the right word...

A memory. That's right. A vivid memory about a past that he remembered so clearly as if it were yesterday.

But how? Usually, his dreams are very plain, and without emotions. So how then...

...

His soul was aching... was this... could this mean...

...

Has the barrier fallen?


	3. A Respite's End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our reports show a massive surge of energy emanating from the mountain. An investigation is pending...

The person stood up and looked out of the window. It was early in the morning; the sun was just rising. The skyline of the busy downtown lingered in the distance. This place has truly turned around in the last hundred years, he trailed. From a godforsaken small town region to a booming metropolitan zone. Not all cities have accomplished this. Most cities haven't, most have ended up rusting away.

He snapped out of his daydream and walked towards the opposite side of the room. He put on his usual clothes, among which was a long black robe, a black shirt, black pants, black... well, everything was in black. It was his favorite style. He also grabbed a long metal staff which was resting nearby and immediately headed out. After a brief assessment of his surroundings, he looked back at his house. It was a tiny wooden cabin with a single common room inside, built on top of a small hill, surrounded by a dense forest. Not really a "proper house" per se, but it served well as a shelter. Also, it wasn't technically his own, he just moved in as it was practically abandoned. He preferred the convenience of it - right next to the mountain's summit, it was the perfect place to watch over everything. It has been his home for many years now. All of this could soon change, however.

With his mind set on the new goal, he secured the door and entered the woods. He's got to find out what's going on. Has the thing he felt back there really happened? ... Only one way to find out.

As per his usual routine, he tried avoiding any sort of contact with anyone along the way. Not really due to stealth or anything, but rather because... well, he was a bit odd. He was way taller and thinner than a "regular" human, and his skin was so pale; as if it had never seen any sunlight. Plus, on top of that, he was always wearing that black suit. It has happened a couple of times that people mistook him for a vampire, a ghost, or a "slender man"... whatever that was. He simply didn't want to scare anyone; the last thing he'd wish for would be a spooky footage of him walking through the mist being number one trending on social media.

Making his way through the forest, he began to wander again, this time into the distant past. Thousands of years ago, this forest wasn't here. It was mostly just grass fields, a few settlements...

This is also where the war took place.

The humans have forgotten easily. All those stories about the monsters and the war, all turned into a myth by the sands of time. And not even a well known myth for that matter, just an obscure piece of regional folklore that no one pays any attention to anymore. But in a way, the curse has also been a blessing. Not just for the monsters, but for the humans as well. Without any magic to do dirty tricks for them, they could progress naturally, discovering the world as it was meant to be discovered, whereas the monsters would enjoy a period of endless peace and security. He doesn't lament it, not in the slightest bit. After all, even though their former shared culture had been lost, it wasn't forgotten. It still lives on, underneath his very feet, underneath this very ground... albeit scarred and drastically altered by the aforementioned events. But, hopefully, all of that is about to change very soon... he just has to hope that the moment had finally come. And also that the humans are ready for it, too. He's ready for sure. He has been for quite a while now. But the humans... they are a stubborn bunch. Stubborn and painfully clueless. He tried convincing them countless times that these things really did happen, that Monsters and Magic are real, that it's not just a tabletop role-playing game. But only a handful of individuals ever listened to him.

And aside from this, he also kept thinking about the words that he heard in his dream: _"Alright, now, who here understands that they will never accept them, and that the only way to end this is to terminate them all?"_

Perhaps... the person who said so was right. After all, the world is currently one big mess. Famines, droughts, locust swarms, grain blight, pandemics and various new age diseases, firestorms and floods, volcanic explosions, unemployment, constant never ending religious and political conflicts... it would be a miracle if the monsters integrated without a single casualty.

Nonetheless, despite all this, he continued his ascend to the eastern face of Mount Ebott - the place where the barrier was originally erected. At this point, he was starting to get annoyed. The terrain was getting more and more difficult to navigate through, and he couldn't exactly teleport through it either. At least not without having one of his magical gizmos at hand. Walking was wasting so much of his time. He once again tried diverting his thoughts, to get a better use of the moment. If it's true, if the barrier really did break today, then perhaps in the meantime, he could try reviewing the facts, to make a mental plan for when he reaches his destination.

There is no way the barrier can break other than through the power of seven human souls... which means that if true, there must be a hole somewhere... which he of course figured a long time ago already. God, how long has it been, a hundred years? And yet, he never found it. He had one job, just ONE, to find the god damned hole! A HUNDRED years and no results. He's a complete failure...

At least his intel wasn't. Although people go missing all the time, it is quite suspicious for elementary-school children to get periodically lost around one specific mountain. The police have conducted many investigations round this area (and he himself also probed the mountain many times) and yet, no luck. No sign of the children, nor of any kind of hole. Both he and the human authorities came up empty-handed. And if the barrier is broken now, then it means that someone must have gotten in very recently, as no missing person report has been filed yet. (Or perhaps he simply hasn't been informed yet. That's also possible.)

He just needs to confirm it. He needs to confirm whether the barrier truly broke, and if yes, whether those lost children can be found down there... as well as to acquire the identity of the potential 7th one.

Now, what about the future? If the barrier is truly gone, then... what about the monsters? And the mountain itself? He has always been worried that the disappearance of the barrier might make the mountain unstable. (Plus, this area is seismically active. If he recalls correctly, a volcanic hearth resides down there somewhere.) What if without the barrier, the mountain collapses one day? It held before, but now, it must be soaked with magic. And if this magic is now allowed to escape... he fears the worst. Assuming the barrier is broken, of course.

Ugh, so many worries. And he hasn't even reached his destination yet.

...

After walking for what felt like a half an hour of a pure torture to him, during which he kept spiraling into increasingly more paranoid thoughts, he finally arrived to an area which he could recognize. There was a mountain wall directly in front of him, casting a shadow on everything behind. He looked back - his shack was surrounded by trees, rendering it invisible. Around the place sat some boulders and a few bushes. He followed the mountain wall to the left, where it abruptly ended, giving way to a stream of sunlight. He proceeded to walk into the light.

Adjusting his eyes, he slowly began to recognize the scenery. He was standing near the edge of a cliff overlooking a different nearby mountain on the left (whose name he did not recall) and the city on the right. In between the two, the sun disc sat. It was positioned right above the horizon, behind a thin layer of clouds, illuminating the sky and the miles of greenery all round with a golden glare. It was truly beautiful, a beautiful late-summer morning.

Then, he looked behind him and there he saw it. A large cave opening leading into darkness...

So it was true, the barrier is gone.

A mix of fear, curiosity and excitement flared up inside him. All those millennia of waiting and preparing, all culminating at this very place, at this very moment... He did not recall the last time he felt this tense.

Staring into the depths of the cave, he wondered just how much is there really. Can he get an early glimpse? He slowly raised his staff and pointed it at the opening, hoping to receive any sort of a feedback. Adjusting it, it soon began to faintly resonate in his hands, indicating the presence of magic. That made him smile. Finally, something familiar. He suddenly wanted to go exploring. He wanted to see it all. He excitedly made his first step, but then immediately froze in place. He heard footsteps. Footsteps and voices. Many of them. They were approaching fast. That's NOT what he expected! He did what he could do the best. Jump headfirst straight into the nearby bushes and hide there.

He sat on the ground and waited. The footsteps kept echoing closer and closer.

Eventually, all sorts of creatures began walking out. He could only recognize the species:

Two boss monsters...

Two skeleton monsters...

One anthropomorphic fish-like monster and one anthropomorphic reptile... and a...

Wait... no... that cannot be... a HUMAN CHILD? What! Are his eyes deceiving him? Well of course one must have disappeared recently, but the monsters for sure took its soul, right?! And ugh, of course. Of course it's a child. How else. After six of these, plus that one at the very beginning, one would have thought that the dice would fall differently this time. Guess not.

Still though, how is that kid even alive? Was he wrong about his calculations? Did his intel fail him? SEVEN human souls were needed, **SEVEN.** This is the seventh one, **so how can it be standing right there in front of him???**

He tried very hard to calm down his mind. He **must** find out the truth. He just has to. He cleared his thoughts and as sneakily as possible got out of the bush and crept his way around the cave opening.

The monsters kept chatting, too busy to notice him. Or so he thought.

He slowly entered the cave. Darkness engulfed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've heard of Monsters and Magic (M&M), now get ready for D&Ds, a brand new crunchy chocolate snack!


	4. A Small Shock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entering New Home...

He took out his cellphone and sent a message to all of his contacts, hoping he's not too late. He regretted the fact that he hadn't done so earlier. It was all so obvious. Why else would there be such a powerful surge of magic coming from the barrier if not for this? It's almost as if he didn't actually want to believe it. Heh, insane, he let his own feelings cloud his reason. That... hasn't happened to him in a loooong while.

He finished the errand, and then continued further down the dark cave. Except... it wasn't really all that dark. There was light coming from the other end.

That... couldn't be real sunlight, could it? This entire place was supposed to be underground. He continued carefully, walking through a small stone arc, around one corner, around another corner, and then... he fully stopped again. He couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing. Of course he was eventually bound to find some hints of a civilization, but THIS?

He stood in a bright room, with large, golden windows, through which the aforementioned light was coming. And there were golden flowers absolutely everywhere. It was like a garden, except... except for the large throne chair, sitting right in the middle of it. Quite strange. Looking around, he has noticed something else sitting in the corner, covered by a white sheet. It looked chair-like. Perhaps, another throne. He peeked underneath the sheets and... yep. Another throne. And then, he finally gazed upwards at the back wall. It took him a few moments to process the image he was receiving.

The wall bore one more large window, identical to the others. But it wasn't dark. Light was coming through it. According to all common sense, such window should lead right into the tunnel through which he came here... And then, he has finally realized the simple truth. Those weren't windows.

He turned around and reviewed the entire room once again. It had a royal feel to it for sure; there was a throne, and everything was golden. Even the flowers were the golden - actually, they looked exactly like those that usually grow on the surface. How did they get in here? He knew that the seeds of these flowers stick really well to things, especially to fur, which is something a lot of monsters possess...

Heh, he just remembered something funny.

Anyways, the throne and everything... He saw outside that only one of those monsters was wearing a crown and it also was a boss monster... Two thousand years and they still have a monarchy, AND the same dynasty too. That says something about them for sure. Also, tough marriage, he guessed, glancing back at the other throne.

He also noted that there were birds chirping in here... Eh, it's a garden after all, and random small things could enter through the barrier at any time. There's a good chance he's gonna find a huge dump of human trash somewhere further down the road. Still, not everything can just enter it. It was merely designed to stop humans from entering... from this side only. Nothing would stop a human from passing through at the other end of it. If only he knew where exactly the other end was when he was still on the outside... some hundred years ago. That would have made everything much easier.

At this point there was nothing else to see, and so, he started heading for the exit.

...

The paths split up from there. He took the left path, the one that led downwards. He walked down the stairs, until he arrived in a small cold room.

Welp, wrong path, he thought to himself. He would have almost left, if it wasn't for the strangest things lying in there. A set of seven coffins, arranged one by one in a long row. They were all opened and empty. And all children-sized.

That shocked him mildly. But alas, that answered his other question. Yep, those 6 humans all disappeared down here, just like the first one... whose coffin was also in here.

The coffins appeared to have heart-shaped colored labels on them. Perhaps indicators of their soul colors? Not that it was important, it's just strange that the monsters have chosen to note this, but not for example their names or how they looked. But oh well, different culture, different customs. It's also interesting how all of the seven possible soul colors were present without a repeat. What a terrific coincidence! Only a... a... uh... only a... 0.61% chance of that happening!

Eh, enough of time wasting, he thought to himself. He has decided to return. He still wondered where their bodies were at, but guessed they must have been taken away today, probably for a burial or god knows what. Why else would these crypts be opened like this, if not for tha-

In the middle of his internal monologue, he froze. At the top end of the staircase, he saw something. He could swear he saw a shadow move.

He slammed himself against the wall, hoping to conceal himself. What a pathetic attempt at stealth. He then looked back up. No one there. Excellent. He slowly continued ascending, still wary of anyone or anything that could be spying on him. Standing in front of the entrance to the throne room again, he took the second path now, the one which seemed to lead to the rest of the underground. His thoughts were in disarray.

After a brief moment of walking, he entered a corridor filled with golden light. More of those golden "windows" again. He had to say, they were capable of imitating sunlight pretty well. And this room was also somewhat interesting. He could see the delta rune symbol being really prominent here. And at the end of the corridor, he spotted a chest, partially filled with some junk... It was a bit strange, he felt it resonating with magic. He tried to probe it...

Another small shock. It was filled with spacetime energy.

Curious, he took out one of his hairs and examined it - a normal, synthetic, brown hair. He had plenty of those. He placed the hair into the chest and then left through the nearby exit. The next area was half-dark, and everything was sort of gray-ish. There was a metal door to his right, leading to who knows where. The path continued to the left. And in front of him, the underground stood still.

Pausing, he gazed into the distance...

So many buildings, crammed into so little space. They weren't really all that interesting either. They all had the same repeating medieval pattern and were all totally monotonously gray...

Wow, this had to be the dullest, most boring city in the entire world!

He has decided to continue. It's pointless for him to be wasting his time like this. There was only so much time he had left, and so many things he had to see...

...

Walking, walking, more walking walking, another roofed corridor, more walking, left turn, right turn, more walking, oh look, wooden stairs!

...

He looked around. It seemed like he has just walked into someone's home. How strange. No door. The path just led straight into here...

Oh, this is probably be where the king lives, he guessed. Well, if he's here already, he could at least look around a bit. He walked into what looked like the living room.

Four chairs. _Two plus two is four._

The kitchen... Snails. Ugh. Also, white fur in the drain. Yep.

The hallway... More golden flowers.

He began to feel something. If he was stupid, he wouldn't notice these little details, nor would he put them together in his head like that... But he was smart. Really smart.

_Two plus two is four. Seven minus one is six..._

"Room under renovations" - OBVIOUSLY nothing in there for him.

He tried another door.

He walked in. There was a very large bed inside. A macaroni art of a flower... A pink sweater... Those notes though: "For king dad!" ... "Mr. Dad guy." ...

He closed the door of that room, almost crushing the door knob in his strong grip.

He entered the other room...

...

_Two._

Somewhere, somehow, he could feel _him_ laughing.

_I told you! I told you that protecting them was bullshit!_

That's what _he_ would say if _he_ was there with him right now.

Now he truly knew why it took eight humans to break the barrier, not just seven. Although he's seen it with his own eyes before, he didn't really want to believe it back then. He couldn't...

...

Now what?

He deeply inhaled.

_"MAN HOW THE **** ARE THEY GETTING THIS MUCH ****ING LIGHT IN HERE, THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE ****ING UNDERGROUND, THIS ENTIRE PLACE SHOULD BE ****ING PITCH BLACK, I CAN'T ****ING SEE ANY ****ING LIGHT SOURCE ANYWHERE OR ****ING ANYTHING, HOW THE **** IS THERE SO MUCH ****ING LIGHT AROUND---"_

Yup, he's lost it. At least he's venting it verbally, instead of, for example, tearing down walls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definitely a weaker chapter. I don't like it as much as the other ones. But I still tried my best to add as much lore and hidden references as possible.
> 
> So... this person we're following right now... I really like his thought process. But he keeps getting distracted. Maybe... he's just not ready for the responsibility that monsterkind presents... Maybe his past sins have finally caught up to him. Hmm, I wonder what secrets he must be hiding...


	5. Volcanic Parkour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically, what the title said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a short break from updating this. Then my monitor broke down and it took a few days to fix it. Then I decided to merge the next two chapters into one. I'll keep them separated in the DeviantArt mirror.
> 
> Also, don't expect any random fun value related encounters in this or any of the following chapters. Not only are they rare, but even if the fun value was right, the given encounter was already exhausted anyways.

He left the place in a relative peace. It was like leaving a funeral.

Briefly, one more view to the underground opened up to him. He looked at it and began to think again about the stuff that has happened here. Not right now, but far in the past.

If a human and a monster fuse their souls, they will be able to get through the barrier, since the fusion of a human and a monster soul, or rather, the fusion of determination and magic, is a very powerful combination. He had no idea how that worked, but it was the only explanation. So that's what the first human's soul was used for then. Not for the barrier, but for... this.

But who even came up with such plan? And more importantly, why did it fail? Such fusion should theoretically be able obliterate everything in its path. Why fall down to a bunch of humans like that? True, they had shotguns and stuff, but still. And he himself didn't help back then, because he thought the monster would defend itself... like any normal person would? Nope. And because of him, the single most important thing... is gone forever. He could still at least try to protect the rest of monsterkind. No more deaths, not anymore. Humans? They can all die, there's 11 billion of them. Monsters? Nope, not gonna allow that.

He has decided to leave the main path and start exploring around a little. But only now has he realized that he's been standing on top of a castle wall this entire time. He'd have no option but to jump down from here... or perhaps, he could try to find an alternative rout-

_"heya."_

**!!!**

Without thinking, he flipped himself over the edge. He didn't even care who just spoke to him, as long as that someone won't find him again.

**CRASH**

His body created a fine hole in the stone-tiled walkway. He stood up and brushed the granite dust off of his clothes. He has noticed several monsters looking at him. Casually, he walked away like nothing has happened.

Along the walkway, there was a large mass of monsters streaming from one particular direction. They all seemed to be headed for the exit. How predictable. He still didn't know if he sent that message in time. Nonetheless, he started to walk against the stream. So many monsters. So many different kinds, different species. Finally, he found the source of the mob. A small elevator, constantly going up and down. Down completely empty, up so full it was almost unbelievable. He hopped in the moment a bunch of monsters got out. He quickly caught their looks. There was one that looked like a dragon-esque crocodile, another one that looked like a cat but with high heels, and another one looking like some black slimy... SOMETHING, with a red bow tie. The rest was just a bunch of smaller monsters.

The door closed. He could now hear the quiet elevator music playing. After just a few moments, the elevator stopped. The door opened and he was yet again engulfed by a bright yellow light, but this time a more artificially looking one. This place looked like a lobby of some fancy hotel or something. Just as he stepped out, another bunch of monsters got in, and there were still many more waiting in the lobby. He wanted to get out of here asap, and so he tried the very first door that he could find.

_"Welcome to the MTT-Brand Burger Emporium, home of the Glamburger. Sparkle up your day™"_

Oh...

 _"How can I help you, O customer?"_ The vendor spoke... He looked like a cat in pain.

"Err, thanks. Give me a moment."

...

"So, what do you sell here?"

_"What do we sell here??? Have you considered looking at the menu behind me?"_

"Ah..."

...

"Hmm... who is 'Mettaton'?"

_"Wait what...? (is this guy serious...) Please do not prolong your order. I don't have an entire day for you!"_

"Why, there's no one behind me anyways... and why are even here when everyone's leaving already?"

_"Not your business! And I'm not chatting with you any further until you order something!"_

...

"Okay, do you accept extremely old, probably outdated currency?"

_"(oh for god's sake...) How should I know??!!!??! Probably not, speak with my employer about such things, or, I dunno, consult the law! And order something already!!!"_

"Hey, that's not a particularly nice way to talk to your customers!"

_[insert an indescribable facial expression here]_

...

_"Ehm... pardon, would you like to order anything at all, CUSTOMER?"_

"Meh, no thanks."

**_[insert horror]_ **

He waltzed out of the store, grinning in amusement. Perhaps the funniest thing about all of this was, how the "M" on that silly hat of his was changing along with his frustrating expressions. Haha... He'll have to confiscate that artifact later.

He looked around the lobby again. "CORE" ... well, that doesn't seem like the way out of here.

 _"Royal Memorial Fountain, built 201X"_ \- huh... _"Mettaton Added Last Week"_ \- god dammit.

...

Ah, here we go!

_"Enjoy our hotel while you can, soon we're moving!"_

He turned around, and saw this weird pointy... someone... with a fez. Probably the receptionist.

"Thanks, and you enjoy moving to the surface, heh." - he replied. He loved the silliness of some monsters.

_"Oh we will. Thanks for passing through! We pride ourselves on being passed through!"_

**Naive.**

He walked out and turned around. There was a large fancy sign above the door.

"MTT"

He could tell just from that that this would be a really overpriced, overbranded hotel. And so far that seemed to be the case. Also the fact that everyone's on the move now makes things a bit more interesting. He turned away and proceeded to walk forwards, down the small staircase.

It was really quiet over here. And also quite hot. Now which way? Further down, left, or right? This was the first serious crossroad he's encountered this far. He tried going down again, but he only found a bunch of weird-looking wet floor tiles leading to a dead end. They looked dangerous and smelled like tropical fruit. He then tried going left, where he found an elevator labelled "R3". He could take a ride again, but he wanted to explore too, not just skip entire areas. And then, he gazed downwards...

Wow, this for sure was no place for those fearing heights! He thought. The cave walls were gone, and there was only a large empty space below the platform which he was now standing on, suspended solely by the elevator shaft. Plus a lake of magma all the way down. No wonder it was so hot in here.

Well then, there's the volcanic hearth. And the human scientists thought it was just some occasional tectonic activity. Wait before they see this thing, ha!

He returned and tried his luck the last path.

...

Huh, houses... Oh wait, is this some stage or something? ... There's literally a broadcast camera right over here...

Oh look a trapdoor...

A 'Mettaton' poster... That guy again?

...

OH HELL DAMN THAT'S A ONE BIG ROOM FULL OF NOPE

He. Hated. Arachnids. Probably another thing he inherited from living with the humans for so long.

And although he could still try going through there, that would be really inconvenient. It would be much faster if he just burned it all, rather than trying to scramble through the webs. But then again, he had no idea whether there were any "sentient" spiders living in there. He didn't want to burn their homes. And so, he turned around yet AGAIN and swiftly marched away from the nope, towards the R3 elevator.

...

One last thing was still bugging him... The person who spoke to him earlier... Their tone... So casual, yet somewhat omnious. As if they knew you couldn't escape them, no matter how hard you tried. Maybe he'll get to meet them later again. He thought, as the door of the elevator opened. He stepped inside. There was a whole bunch of buttons. They were labelled "Left Floor 3", "Right Floor 3", "Left Floor 2", etc...

Well, that explains the name of this elevator. Maybe trying L3 would get him around that spider nest?

Only one way to find out. He pressed the button. The door closed behind him and the elevator started moving.

**(A/N: And now, the music finally begins.[Feel free to tune in.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNN0HyO3rM4))**

The doors of the elevator opened. He found himself on top of a red platform this time. He started walking.

The first thing he encountered were some cobwebs, a table with 8 legs and a sign. Those spiders again? He approached the sign. Oh, it's a shop! He concluded, reading it. And it was empty. Even the table was completely cleared. One would think there would at least be a cover laid over it, due to how ugly it is. It's interesting to see with what a haste can the monsters all pack up and start moving when they really want... Heh, another funny flashback. Oh man, this journey will be a hell lot of fun.

Anyways, those spiders will probably come back for the table later. He guessed. And so, he continued.

The next thing he encountered - platforms. Lots and lots of platforms. There were small square platforms with vents all over the place, and they kept releasing steam on regular intervals. As he approached them, he has noticed that they had arrows on them. Hmm, so is this a transport system of some sort perhaps? It certainly looks like a one. There didn't seem to be any bridges around, so either jumping over these or using the vents were the only two options. He stepped on one, and waited for a burst of steam. It came quickly, sort of lifted him, and then quickly died out again.

...

Okay, he's heavy, alright. There's no other option for him but to jump over these. It will be faster too. He would first have to put aside his staff though. Funny, all this time, he kept it in his hands and didn't even notice it. He really grew attached to it. Well, what can you say, it's a fine piece of combat equipment. The metal, flexible yet strong. The shape, aerodynamic, yet capable of delivering a strong blow. And above all, excellent at channeling magic. He took a staff holder out of somewhere, secured the staff with it and put it on his back. He then retreated a few meters, turned towards the platforms and readied himself...

In the blink of an eye, he accelerated abruptly towards the vents, and jumped. With that jump, he skipped two platforms immediately and overcame the last two in two more steps.

Finally, as quickly as he sped up, he stopped. It even left marks on the floor. And that was good, for he stopped barely a meter before a sharp leftwards turn. Below was only a pool of magma.

He huffed and looked around. Nothing else to see really. He proceeded forwards at a usual pace.

...

Oh, here's the spider nest again. Welp, that was a trip for nothing, he groaned. Back to the elevator then. This time he took the vents one at a time.

Still...

 _jump jump jump jump jump j-_ **"OH F-"**

The moment he wanted to jump over the last crevice, the vent activated, launching him across the platform, RIGHT into the cobwebs he encountered before. He also managed to crush the nearby sign with his head.

**"......udge."**

Mumbling something, he got back up and approached the L3 elevator. Steam transport is complicated.

He pressed the button. The elevator started moving. After a few seconds, it stopped and the doors opened. He waltzed out, hoping for no more cobwebs.

The first thing he noted when walking out: orange rock floor again. So... does that mean no more vents? Second thing - in the middle of the magma lake, an omnious structure stood.

Wow.

This sight has definitely surprised him. How did he miss this? There must have been an entrance he didn't go through. There were quite a few of them actually. He should totally visit that thing on his way back.

Anyways, moving on.

More walking...

Some surprisingly sturdy pipe bridges. And also, a conveyor belt.

More walking...

Even more walking.

An opened electronic safe on a table. Ehm... Okay? Squeak!

...

More walking...

More conveyor belts. He took a ride this time. After all, they were already moving in his desired direction.

...

Even more conveyor belts...

More walking...

"Ugh, boring", he grunted out. All this walking was starting to tire him. It was like the forest all over again. Just endless walking. Nothing interesting to see around either. Maybe except for that small wooden stand, barely reaching the height of his shoulders, standing right ahead of the road. Wait no, that's not interesting either, what is he thinking.

Actually... no, hold on. What... what is that? This can't be right...

As he approached the small wooden structure, he has noticed that roof of it was completely covered by snow. What??? How in the HELL (literally) is there SNOW on top of it??? He asked himself, examining the stand.

Well, it could actually be anything. But then... - _he touched the white crystals_ \- Why is it COLD???? He was simply baffled by this. Even if that's not really snow, it shouldn't be this cold. There wasn't even any sort of cooler underneath it or anything.

This was beyond weird. Snow or not, he reached for his staff, and pointed it at the roof of the stand. He waited for a few moments, hoping for any feedback...

Nothing. It was like... it doesn't even exist.

THAT DOES IT!!!

He quickly did something with his hands, and from the tip of the staff, a tiny pulse of orange light came out, briefly illuminating the cold deposit.

"That should wake it up," he remarked, putting the staff away.

And indeed, the substance immediately underwent a major reality check. Within seconds, it started to melt, sploshing on the ground as a wet slush, which further melted down into a puddle of... yep, that was water alright.

And a few seconds after that happened, the water started to boil and turn into steam. Welp, water does evaporate in this heat more easily than usual, but still... wow, was that snow really here for THAT long? He asked himself, surprised. And how did this happen anyways? For sure some shady magic was used to do this, but for what purpose? Why do you need snow on a... uh... on a hot-dog stand? He finished his sentence, examining some lonely sausages laying below the desk of the stand.

... water sausages.

"Well... at least it's vegan. Oh, another elevator already? Alrighty then." He mumbled to himself.

R2 -> R1

...

_Ding!_

"Now, where were we..."

" _Sigh_ , more pointless walking."

"Oh, another view of that giant structure."

"Hmm... what is this, tiled floor? How weirdly fancy."

"OH WHAT THE HELL AGAIN"

Apparently, he has just walked into a kitchen... Yep, you've heard that right, a kitchen. It had everything, including furniture, a fridge, oven, a window- wait hold on. A window? Is this just another stage or something? Oh my GOD, why are these things just laying around here on the main walkway? Is... is this not the main walkway? I mean, who would want to walk through someone's kitchen every day?

Apparently, he had a million questions again. But suddenly, a different thought crossed his mind.

Why does he even care?

There's TOO much stuff around here. Why does he have to constantly comment on every single little thing he does or finds? It's probably because he's had so much free time up until now. Being alone for most of the time for over two thousand years sure has ruffled his sanity a bit. But... shouldn't he try to act more "normal" now at least? What if someone is watching him? They would see a person that's just constantly mumbling something to himself. They would think he's crazy. But he can't really change that right now. For that reason, he would rather want to avoid all people. Perhaps that's why he jumped down that castle wall, to avoid an awkward conversation. But soon he'll have to do some talking anyways, so... does he want to stay quiet for now, or shall he finally talk to someone-

_"heya again"_

Quiet it is then.

He didn't even bother to turn around.

_"you're... not really into talking, are ya?"_

...

_"heh, you're just like the other one."_

**......**

_"listen, i can see that you're headed for the LAB."_

...?

_"but you didn't know that yet, did ya?"_

...

 _"well, in case you're uh, snooping for information, then go there, you might learn some interesting things. since_ _you, err... don't really seem to be surprised by any of this... not to mention your shirt._ _"_

............

_"well then, see ya."_

...

He finally turned around.

There was no one there...

This person... They sound exactly like the previous one he met at the castle. Were... were they stalking him? Whoever they are, they apparently trust him, since they're already helping him. Why? And is it really trust, or something else? And who were they referring to by "the other one?" The human child that he met at the entrance? He felt like his brain just stopped. He stood there for three good minutes, trying to come up with a reason for all of this, until finally moving a finger again.

Ugh, whatever. "To the lab, I guess..." he proclaimed rather apathetically. Finding some info would be definitely better than going through vent labyrinths and fake kitchens all day. He turned around and continued walking... For like two seconds. Suddenly, he has encountered another problem. There were three platforms ahead, each one with a vent. They were pretty spaced out, and the vents were ALL pointing in the opposite direction.

Is this a joke? Who even designed this? He asked himself. This seemed to be the only path through here apart from the elevators, so... what if they were to break? How would the people that live on this side then get past THIS?

Hmph, even the monsters seem to be starting to rely on technology too much...

But about this section... he seriously doubted he could pull off a smooth one this time. He backed off some distance. This time he decided to go around the sides, to avoid the vents, in case they activate. He rolled up his sleeves for a good measure and readied himself.

Aaaaaaand... JUMP!

First landing - almost perfect. Second - at the edge. Third... he managed to grab the pipes around the edges with his hands, with the rest of his body dangling down. Damn, not really fit today, are we? He chuckled, pulling himself up.

Man, this terrain is hard. Why would you even want to have a one-way of this kind here?

**After an unspecified amount of time of pathfinding...[♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iiNu9kPsUc)**

Weird, is L1 somewhere around here? He asked himself. True, it's been a while since he's last seen an elevator. And that section he just went through was rather... exhausting to navigate through.  
  
"LAB"  
  
That's... err... a rather vague name for a building. He noted. Though this might be the only lab in the entire underground, who knows. He doesn't. He wondered if there are also some other monopolistic buildings, like "MALL", or "AQUARIUM", or... uh... whatever. He proceeded forwards.  
  
The doors were automated. He walked in.


	6. Surface Intermission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wonder what must be happening on the surface right now...

"Papyrus, wait for me dammit!" The sharp words echoed through the forest as two creatures ran downhill, chasing one another. Ahead was a tall skeleton monster wearing a white plastic chest plate, blue briefs, a pair of orange gloves and boots, and an orange cape, which was turbulently flapping around due their speed. The chaser was a piscine anthropomorphic female monster with blue scales, red fins, and was wearing a black tanktop, jeans, and an eye patch across her left eye. Quite the sight.

"AH UNDYNE! I SEE YOU WANT TO GREET THEM TOO!" The skeleton monster ahead of the chase called out.

"No, I told you to stop running and WAIT for me!" The fish monster in behind exclaimed, in a noticeably frustrated voice.

"OH YOU'RE RIGHT, WE NEED TO GO TOGETHER, GOOD IDEA UNDYNE!" The skeleton monster replied enthusiastically, abruptly stopping and running back to catch up to her.

"No, that's not what I meant! Just stop completely, we CAN'T go!"

"WAIT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" The excited skeleton finally stopped.

"I _mean_ , we can't just rush in there like that, we will only freak them out! We need some plan!"

"BUT I ALREADY HAVE A PLAN. THE TWO OF US WILL GO THERE FIRST, HAVE A QUICK TALK WITH THE HUMANS-"

" **NO!** "

The fish monster yelled so loudly it made the entire forest go quiet.

...

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. "Look, I get it Papyrus, you're excited. I am too, but we can't just..." She paused off, trying to rephrase herself. "We... should wait for the others to arrive first... and it'll be the best if we let Asgore do the talking. He will surely know how to approach a situation like this."

The skeleton monster glanced sideways, reconsidering.

"HMM... I GUESS THAT IS A BETTER IDEA. HE SHOULD HAVE THE PRIVILEGE IN GREETING THEM, HE IS OUR KING AFTER ALL."

"Ugh, thank you." The angry fish monster exhaled.

"Undyne! What happened???" Another voice reached their ears, speeding towards them from behind. It has soon revealed to belong to a small yellow female reptilian monster wearing a white lab coat and glasses.

"OH ALPHYS! YOU CAME TO SEE THE HUMANS TOO?"

"Uh- no, I... w-what happened? I heard yelling!" The yellow monster arrived, hastily stopping in from of them.

"No worries Alph', everything's alright, Papyrus was just REEEEALLY eager to meet the humans." She explained. "I said it will be better if we wait for Asgore."

"Oh-o-kay then." The reptilian stammered.

"ON THAT NOTE, WHERE IS ASGORE ANYWAYS?" Papyrus asked. "IS HE STILL UP THERE? SHOULD WE GO BACK FOR HIM?"

"N-no, I... I think he was right behind me." Alphys answered again.

"I'm here!" A deep voice spoke. "What was that yelling about?" The goat-esque king with a yellow beard and floppy ears emerged from the bushes. From all the monsters around, he was the biggest. Probably because he still had his entire battle armor on.

"Nothing Asgore! I was just getting frustrated over Papyrus here!" Undyne explained once more.

"ASGORE, ME AND UNDYNE THOUGHT YOU SHOULD INTRODUCE US TO THE HUMANS!" The skeleton monster shouted excitedly.

"Huh? Oh... Yes, I... believe it is my job to do that." He hummed. "Have you found them yet?"

"NOT YET. NOT A SINGLE ONE! HOW STRANGE, I THOUGHT THE SURFACE WOULD BE SWARMING WITH THEM."

"Oh come on Papyrus, we're in a forest! I'm pretty sure humans don't live in forests! (At least not all of them.)" Undyne laughed. "I think the safest bet is that city we saw in the distance."

"Yes, Undyne is right." Asgore spoke. "From what I recall, humans do not live in forests, but in large settlements. We should definitely be heading for the civilization we saw in the distance."

"Yeah, let's not waste any more time! I'm excited to finally meet some cool humans! NGAAAH!" Undyne yelled excitedly.

"But we first have to wait for Toriel and Frisk, they're the only ones left."

"AND MY BROTHER!"

"Uh, actually Papyrus, he... went the other way." Undyne informed him.

"WHAT? YOU MEAN BACK TO THE MOUNTAIN?"

"Uh yeah, pretty much."

"THAT BAG OF LAZYBONES DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HIS DIRECTIONS!" He yelled sharply, albeit in a rather silly tone. He was too excited to be mad at anyone right now.

...

The monsters kept chatting for a while - Papyrus being especially talkative, describing all the other things his brother Sans has managed to screw up over the past week or so to Undyne and Asgore, who were rather busy discussing the upcoming events involving the human race.

After a short while, the last two arrived - an elder feminine monster of the same species as Asgore, wearing a long purple robe, and a small tanned human child with a squinty face and a magenta-blue striped shirt, holding her hand.

"Oh, here you two are! Shall we go then?" The king asked.

"Yes, I suppose." The female monster replied to her former husband. "What is the current plan?"

"THE PLAN IS WE WILL HEAD TO THE CITY TOGETHER, QUEEN TORIEL." Papyrus shouted excitedly.

"Please, just Toriel. I am no longer a queen."

"MY APOLOGIES, TORIEL."

The way he said it made it sound even worse.

"Papyrus, it's miss To-"

"Guys, I think I found a path!" Alphys announced, running towards them. Apparently, she's been gone all this time, scanning the surroundings, without anyone noticing. In all fairness, Papyrus was enough of a distraction for everyone.

"That's great, Alphys!" Asgore beamed. "That way we at least don't have to struggle through this dense forest." He said, glancing at the thick bushes and uneven terrain all around them. They all proceeded to follow her, and indeed, they soon encountered a wide dusty forest road.

"Well then, let us not waste any more time. I am sorry Papyrus, but we cannot wait for your brother forever." Asgore spoke.

"MEH, IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER, IT'S HIS LOSS ANYWAYS." He muttered in a quiet tone... Which in his case just meant an emission of a less distinct sound of the same volume. Everything about Papyrus was just... loud.

"WE WILL BRING HIM A SOUVENIR."

No one had anything else to say, and so, the five monsters and the small human all set off, with a common goal in their minds - to greet the human population for the first time in some two thousand years.

Except... not always do things happen the way you would expect them to. Almost immediately after they began their trek, something caught their attention, something absolutely unprecedented.

"Wait, y-you guys, do you hear that!?" Alphys exclaimed, making everyone freeze on the spot. From not too far away, a very low humming/cracking sound could be heard approaching. And it was approaching quickly. Before anyone could react, a big, black... 'something' emerged from behind the trees that a few of them recognized to be a motor vehicle - a black van, to be more specific. They all jolted in surprise and backed off several steps despite the van quickly hitting the brakes. Everyone was completely speechless and on a full alert. Apparently, their first encounter with humans came sooner than anticipated.

The engine turned off...

After a few moments of complete silence, the doors opened up with a loud thud, which made the monsters jerk in surprise. No one knew what to think, or how to react. All they could do is just stand there and watch. And also hide behind one another. Then, a bunch of humans began emerging from the van, one by one. They were all wearing different clothes, such as jeans, flannel shirts, vests, and other stuff. One would almost expect them to wear matching military uniforms or something, on this strange, coincidental occasion. And on top of that, they didn't seem to be surprised by the presence of the monsters at all. No, they were rather just standing there, looking all around the place, as if they were watching out for something completely different...

Finally, one last person slowly stepped out of the van. He was somewhat older than the rest, fully bald, wore round glasses, and was dressed in a long brown worn out trench coat. He looked around for a bit, adjusting his clothes (which he apparently just put on), and then headed straight towards the monsters. He seemed somewhat... rushed. All of them kinda did.

He stopped directly in front of them and stared them in the eye. Afterwards, he took a deep breath, and in a rather excited tone, proclaimed: "Well then, shall we begin the introductions?" Clasping his hands together.

...

"My name is Marcus." He broke the dead silence. "Marcus Keno. I am the leader of this operation." The monsters stayed utterly silent. Only Undyne managed to spit out something. "The, operation... what?"

"Oh good, you can speak." The adult human joked, prompting an exchange of weird looks among the monsters. "But I'll explain everything in a moment. Now, I assume this guy over here is your leader, right?" He pointed over at Asgore. Asgore, just like everyone else, was completely stunned, but he too quickly woke up and straightened his pose. "Yes... I am their king." He answered slowly and carefully, trying to maintain a confident tone. "Hmm, I could guess from the crown." The person chuckled again.

"Excuse me, but, how did you... you were expecting us?" Asgore asked, being rather surprised, and kinda nervous too. "No," the bald human slowly answered, "but when we were informed that the barrier broke, we came as soon as we could."

"And who informed you?" Undyne asked quickly.

"Well, more about that later too." He responded. "Didn't catch your names yet. I don't need to introduce my people yet, but you should probably introduce yourself now."

"OOH I CAN DO THAT!"

That startled everyone. The monsters in particular. Undyne grabbed Papyrus's hand by the elbow in a vague attempt to stop him, but it was too late.

"I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! AS YOU CAN SEE, I AM A SKELETON. MY BROTHER WOULD BE HERE TOO, BUT HE IS SLACKING OFF SOMEWHERE. THIS IS UNDYNE, MY FRIEND AND THE HEAD OF THE ROYAL GUARD! AND THIS HERE IS HER CLOSEST FRIEND, DOCTOR ALPHYS! THE ROYAL SCIENTIST!"

Undyne did nothing. She was too perplexed to further react. She merely managed to mutter out a quiet "shut up Papyrus".

"AND THIS IS ASGORE DREEMURR, OUR KING. BUT YOU KNOW THAT ALREADY!" Papyrus continued, audibly winking at the end of that sentence. Everyone desperately wanted to stop him, and this time it was Toriel who took action.

"Papyrus, please. Let _us_ handle this."

"BUT I'VE JUST BEGUN-"

"Papyrus, didn't you agree earlier that Asgore should have the privilege in introductions?" Undyne cut him off. Asgore instinctively reacted and finished Papyrus's monologue.

"Yes, I am sorry about that. I am Asgore Dreemurr, this... is my former wife, Toriel Dreemurr, and this is Frisk. A human who fell down to the underground a day ago and set us all free."

The person didn't say anything. He just studiously watched them, holding his index fingers in a tipped position under his nose.

"Mhm. You two are boss monsters, right?"

"...Uh, yes, we are." Asgore replied with a pause, bewildered. Just how much does this person even know about them?

"Thought so." The human replied, examining them all.

"Now, the operation." He continued. "We were informed that the barrier broke and our job is to... well, basically, we have to make sure that you return back in there safely. We can't let you into the city. Not yet."

Again, lots of exchanged looks, and an angry "WHAT" coming from Undyne's general direction.

"We can't let you near _any_ humans in fact, they need to-"

"EXCUSE me, but **what**!?" Undyne cut him off.

"Undyne-" Asgore tried to halt her.

"NO, we were locked in there for thousands of years, and we JUST got out! We are NOT going back in there, **EVER**."

"Undyne, calm down please." Asgore tried once more.

...

"I understand." The human continued. "But you also have to understand, the world isn't ready for you yet."

"Sorry, what do you mean?" Asgore asked, even though he could already guess what the person probably meant. The human looked at the fish monster, checking whether is it okay to continue talking again.

"To be honest, the humans don't even believe that you exist or ever existed. Heck, they don't even believe in magic, nor know anything about souls, despite having them themselves. Let's just say that there were some that did a pretty good job at covering up your existence. So, for this reason, we would first have to inform our governments, as this information will be completely new to them. We'll have to contain this, so that we don't create a panic. You truly underestimate how much the humans would be scared of you. Your magic, your knowledge, it defies almost everything they know of, or believe in. It would take an extremely long time for them to adjust to such news."

He paused off for a moment, but when he saw the monsters' worried expressions, he quickly continued again.

"Luckily for you, we DID begin with all the adjusting a long time ago too." He smiled mildly. "So all I'm asking you now is that you return, and we will try our best to make sure the humanity gets... 'ready' for your return. When it is okay for you to come out, we will let you know."

"And when will THAT be?" Undyne angrily shouted again.

"Give us a week. A lot can be accomplished in that time. In case you're wondering what does that refer to here at the surface, it means 7 sunrises. You can count them if you want to."

"OH! THAT WILL BE FUN!" Papyrus returned to his mood.

"No it WON'T." Undyne took over the conversation once more. "What are we supposed to DO during that time?! Literally every monster wants to see the surface! What are we supposed to tell them?"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have told them in the first place." He shrugged. This made Undyne genuinely stumped.

"This is your problem now. BUT, if you _really_ wish to go out, then you can. We will try to... ehm, 'isolate' this area so that no humans can come here. Just don't stray too far away from the mountain. Oh, and back on the topic of time, today is the 16th of September, 2122. So yeah, sync your calendars." He added.

"H-heh, wow, we're pretty far in behind." Alphys muttered, finally grabbing enough confidence to speak up. And it was true, the monster calendar was behind by practically several years. Either due to bad timekeeping, or perhaps because of...

"Anyways, that's all I'd say." Marcus wrapped up the conversation. "No need to stay in touch, we will come again when everything is ready. Besides, our informant will talk to you soon too."

"Well, ehm... thank you for your time, Mr. Keno." Asgore said, still quite surprised by the entire situation. The monsters were too. Who was this informant he's speaking of anyways?

"Hey, it's better if you hear it from me than from some military guys dragging you back into the mountain, in the better case. Have a nice day for the time being."

He added, walking back towards the van, gesturing at the other humans. They all followed him back into the vehicle. The door closed with another loud thud. The engine started, and then the van began backing off, turning around in the distance and slowly cruising away.

...

The air was thick. Everyone was engulfed in a thought trance for at least twenty seconds after the van disappeared behind the tree and bush foliage, until Alphys spoke up.

"W-well that was quite something, don't you think guys?" She stammered.

"I'M HAVING A GOOD VIBE FROM THAT HUMAN. I THINK WE WILL BE FRIENDS."

"Ugh, are we seriously being commanded by the humans already?" Undyne groaned, trying hard to ignore Papyrus's statement.

"I'm not sure anymore if those were actual human representatives, but I believe they had a good point." Asgore now spoke up too. "The last thing we want is to cause panic among the humans. Even though we are ready, they are probably not. I think we should do as they said and return back to the mountain until they're ready too."

"WHAT! BUT I WANTED TO MEET THE HUMANS, I EVEN CHANGED MY DAILY SCHEDULE FOR THIS VERY SPECIAL MOMENT! ARE YOU SAYING WE REALLY HAVE TO WAIT SEVEN MORE DAYS?"

"Oh come on Asgore, you can't be serious! We barely even filled our lungs with fresh air! Or gills, I dunno!" Undyne fussed.

"H-hey, look on the bright side guys! A-at least they told us that we can go out, meaning we... we don't have to stay inside all day and night at least." Alphys tried lifting the mood a little.

"Well, I admit, it is a bit of a setback, but we shouldn't expect much from the humans, certainly not them welcoming us with open arms." Asgore tried to answer everyone. "Although, as Alphys said, it is not as bad as it may seem. After all, the surface is still open to us."

"Yes, that is true, but what will we to tell the rest of the monsterkind?" Toriel worried. "Some of them are preparing to move already."

"They will have to wait too." Asgore admitted, sighing. "Of course, they will be free to walk out and see the surface if they wish to. That's the least we can allow them."

Everyone agreed on this idea. It was only fair. "Well, in that case, Papyrus, Undyne, you two are the fastest, could you please run towards the entrance and make sure that no one walks out?" Asgore commanded. "I'm not sure if anyone got out so far, but it will be better if we halt everyone for now, until we figure out what to do next."

"SURE THING, ASGORE! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE THERE AS QUICKLY AS MY FEET CAN CARRY ME!"

"heh, may your feet not get you carried away too much."

"HUH? SANS?" Papyrus turned around. Sans, his brother, was standing _in front_ of all of them. How he got there was a mystery.

"SANS, OH MY GOD, YOU MISSED EVERYTHING, WHAT IN THE MARROWS WERE YOU DOING?"

The smaller skeleton kicked a stone. "well, y'know, i was just stretching my bones, now that the world has opened up for me a bit."

"BY TURNING AROUND AND GOING BACK INTO THE MOUNTAIN?"

"well i did arrive, didn't i?"

"YES, LATE!!!"

"Ugh, I'm going, Asgore." Undyne grumbled and ran off.

"so... what's the plan then?" Sans asked.

"Well, we have decided to head back to the mountain and stay there for now until everyone is ready... for everything." Asgore replied.

"oh wow, why didn't you guys tell me, i could have just stayed there." He chuckled.

"HOW COULD WE TOLD YOU, IF YOU RAN OFF?" Papyrus shouted again, getting irritated by his brother's nonsense again.

"you have my phone number."

Papyrus paused off, sighing.

"FOR A BROTHER, YOU SURE ARE A BIG BOTHER. I WAS HOPING YOU COULD TAKE THINGS A BIT MORE SERIOUSLY HERE AT THE SURFACE."

"oh don't worry, i've got everything under control."

"YES- WAIT... WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?"

"anyways, you guys said you were heading back? 'cause i'm going there too actually. starting to get kinda hungry. and tired."

"Yes, we should get going, there's a lot of things we need to take care of." Asgore urged.

And it was true, the last 24 hours were restless for everyone involved, and that's not even mentioning the process of moving the entire kingdom one more time. Asgore and Toriel very well remembered how big of a hassle it was when the near entire monster population wanted to move from Home to New Home.

And so, the monsters turned around and, once again, began walking, this time back, towards the mountain's entrance. Their journey uphill was a bit more difficult, but some fraction of an hour later, they all reached the grand view spot again. The sun was much higher now. So high in fact, that looking at it was practically impossible now. Papyrus had his remarks towards this, hollering something along the lines of "not knowing that this 'giant ball' can cause ocular pain", et cetera.

Near the cave's entrance, they've met Undyne, who proudly reported that she didn't let a single moving thing pass through either way, prompting Sans to make a barrier-related joke. Finally, they all arrived to the hall of Asgore's home. From there, their ways parted. Toriel and Asgore stayed to accommodate Frisk, though Asgore rather did so from as far away as possible, upon witnessing Toriel's expression when he tried touching the child. Undyne and Papyrus ran off to give everyone an update on the current situation and Alphys said that she will return to her lab, though Sans, rather than disappearing, suggested something else to her. They both disappeared soon enough as well.

...

Frisk sat on their new temporary bed. They knew very well whom it originally belonged to. Ignoring the satirical remarks from that _certain someone_ , they lied onto it and tried to contemplate their current situation. They've told Toriel they want to stay with her. They've promised Asgore they'll become their ambassador. Thinking about these things, it filled them with determination... but they were just too tired to get up. They haven't had a proper rest since... no, the MTT hotel was too uncomfortable, the Inn was too loud... since... arriving to Toriel's home. They grabbed the bed sheets and collapsed with them onto the soft pillow. They deserved this. After all that's happened, they deserved rest.

...

_Can you hear me?_

...

_You have to stay determined._

...

_Psst... Chara... please... wake up..._

...

Frisk jolted up, their heart racing. What a bad idea this was. So much for a peaceful sleep. They looked around. Darkness. They got out of the bed and, remembering Toriel's "habits", very carefully walked towards the opposite wall, flipping the lights on again. They scanned the floor and, after seeing nothing, walked back towards the bed and sat down again. Only then they have noticed a large cup of tea resting on top of the open cabinet. Just as Asgore promised. Frisk took the cup. It was still a little bit warm. Despite giving a golden flower tea a taste once before (at Undyne's), they were still curious. They couldn't really enjoy it as much back then due to its scorching temperature.

And so, they finally took a confident sip. It tasted... nice. Kinda sweet, but not too much. And it wasn't drying up their mouth and filling their nose with the smell of something almost metallic either, like the teas they've had the ill luck to taste already... almost every day... oh how they hated those mornings.

After finishing their tea, they've submerged themselves into their thoughts again, as there was still something important on their mind. Frisk remembered feeling something, something about their determination, change, approximately around the time they've left with Toriel to find the others downhill. This change... it wasn't anything specific, but they still felt it. It could mean anything though; weirder things have happened already. But still... maybe it had something to do with the fact that the power to SAVE belonged only to the most determined being in the underground? What would happen if the most determined being LEFT? Who would get that power then? Frisk didn't have to think long to find the answer... Flowey. After all that has happened, Frisk didn't think that Flowey would attempt to do anything funny anymore. And the fact that they woke up in the same place they fell asleep at seemed to be supporting the idea.

Still, they had to check. They could never be cautious enough. They got up and walked out of the room, across the hall and out into the front yard. Outside, they walked around the fallen gray leaves (or maybe it was just a gray stone carving) and amidst those, they saw it. A flickering bright yellow shining star. What a relief.

Wait... flickering?

That was new. Frisk slowly approached it, crouching right in front of it. It truly was flickering.

Almost as if it was... constantly phasing in and out of existence or something. Curious, they've raised their hand slowly and tried interacting with it. Just as their hand was about to meet one of its tips, it disappeared.

They froze...

**Meanwhile, in Hotland...**

_a door opened_

...

"That's..."

"Hella messed up." The person proclaimed.

...

"And what... what in the... did my soul just..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I remember working on this chapter back in 2017. It was pure pain. Trying to get into the role of characters you've never cared about all that much is _really_ difficult.
> 
> Also, I think it's mention worthy that my inspiration for Marcus's appearance came from a certain portrait icon from a game called Forge of Empires:
> 
> <https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/forgeofempires/images/6/6d/Portrait_96.jpg>
> 
> It's not exactly how I envision him, but it's close.


	7. Swamps and Snow Poffs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not much happens here. Still, some secrets will emerge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I'm merging this with the following chapter from DeviantART. Now the chapter numbers should finally be synchronized. I'm also gonna edit the ending of the first and the beginning of the second source chapters so that they merge together more easily.

The unnamed person picked up pace again, still wondering what that was all about. Why did he feel what he just felt? Simply this... tiny momentary tingling in his soul. Was that supposed to mean anything? It couldn't have been natural, after all, this was the first time he's ever felt something like this.

He looked forwards, seeing there's yet another crossroad waiting ahead. What caught his attention though was something that laid in the middle of it. He couldn't tell what exactly it was. It was just this rather small, yellow glowing object, hovering a few centimeters above the ground. It appeared to be animated.

Curious, he approached the glowing object slowly, kneeling on one leg in front of it. Examining it up close, it seemed to resemble a double 4-pointed star, pulsing with energy. He's never seen anything like this before. For sure it was made out of magic, but... what is it? He reached out for his staff and gently tried to poke it...

Nothing happened.

Good, that means progress, he chuckled sarcastically.  
He then tried to shove the entire length of the staff through it...

It came right through. He didn't even know what he expected to happen there.  
The next thing he tried was a magic spell. He aimed directly at it and tried to think of anything that could possibly have an effect on this non-physical strangeness.

But, to his dismay, nothing worked. Every single spell he tried had no effect on this object whatsoever. For a moment he even thought it is the staff itself that could be the cause of all these negative results, but he was quick to dismiss that thought. It has never failed him before. It truly appeared that this object, whatever it was, was absolutely useless. And with that conclusion in mind, he got back up again, no longer paying any further attention to it.

He scanned his surroundings. From the place where he stood at led three paths: the one on the left led downwards to god knows where, the one straight ahead led to a whole bunch of stuff, and the last one led to... ah, another elevator, he noted. It looked identical to all the other ones, and there was a large "L1" written above its door, suggesting that this was the final destination he missed. It was about time too, he was starting to wonder where it was hiding at.

He finally turned his attention towards the path on the left, the one leading down. It seemed to be the smaller one of the remaining two and so, that's where he decided to head next.

He proceeded to walk down the stairs, arriving in a tiny cavern. There was a small, relatively shallow river flowing through it, as well as an empty boat sitting on the bank. He didn't know where the river flowed to, but if there was a boat, he figured it probably won't be some slippery chasm of death. Still, he'd prefer walking to not miss anything. He swiftly turned around and proceeded to return.

However, before he could climb even a single step, he stopped, for he heard another noise behind him. And this time, he did turn around. He swung his body like a mace and gazed into the dim cavern with eyes wide open, looking for anything or anyone that could have been the source of it. He was SO sure he's being stalked again. But, to his dismay, there was nothing he could see. Only the numerous stalactites hanging from the ceiling and a few boulders scattered around the place here and there. Maybe it was just some animal living here... or maybe he was finally going crazy.

Eventually, after concluding that whatever he heard probably wasn't important, he turned back again and speedily ran up the stairs. At the top, he took a left turn and headed for the last remaining path.

Passing by a completely random water cooler, he stopped in front of a long wooden bridge, which was loosely hung above a giant gap in the path. Below was... magma. Of course, how else.

He wasn't so sure of this, especially since the bridge had no guardrails. But then again, it wasn't burning either... Eh, good enough for him.

He definitely had to catch up on monster technology, he thought, as he was crossing the narrow bridge, trying to maintain his balance. Nonflammable wood, glowing glass, heat-proof snow, hats that change shape... Things like this interested him very much. That laboratory for example (or whatever was that supposed to be); it had all kinds of different magical gizmos. Just how much exactly can be achieved using magical physical instrument fusions, he wondered? Though... he felt as if the best part was already behind him. This part of the underground sure seemed very advanced and industrial, but is it the same for the rest of it? The castle from before for example looked very old, including all the buildings surrounding it.

On the other side, he suddenly stopped in front of a second wooden stand, which _yet again_ had snow on its roof.

Wow, what a coincidence! He remarked to himself in a laughing manner. But, the laughter soon disappeared, as he looked at the stand more closely. The fact that there was snow on the roof didn't even surprise him that much anymore, unlike the fact that despite appearing to be hand-made, it looked nearly identical to the one he saw before. Even the patterns on the wooden planks appeared to be identical. He was completely stunned by this. Could it be... a duplicate? Pfft, no of course it couldn't! He snarled, half unsure of himself at this point.

This time, he decided to just ignore it and leave the snow there. He's got better things to do. He turned away from the stand and set his new course towards the massive cave wall straight ahead of the road.

The path led to a small opening at the very bottom of the cliff. He entered the dim cave.

As he was walking through the tunnel, he has noticed several details. First and foremost, it couldn't have been natural of origin, as it was quite... rectangular in shape. Next, there was a very, very long screen on the right wall of this tunnel made up of hundreds of smaller segments, which were currently displaying a moving message:

_W - E - L - C - O - M - E - T - O - H - O - T - L - A - N - D_

From this, he deduced that the previous area was called "Hotland"... a fitting name for sure.

As he continued, he noted one additional detail. The temperature started dropping. About a halfway through he even stumbled upon an open channel below his path with flowing water in it. And soon enough, the tunnel ended and he found himself on a lone stone path, surrounded by deep dark chasms on both sides. It appeared that he has walked into a completely new biome. It was dark, humid, and eerily silent, with the exception of a faint sound of many distant raging waters.

The first thing he found as he looked around was another glowing object hovering in a nearby corner. Approaching it, he confirmed his guess that it was the same kind he saw earlier. Yellow, star-shaped, made out of magic, totally useless. He had no idea what these were and he had no time to waste on them. Leaving in haste, he briefly spotted the faint orange glow in the sky emanating from Hotland. High up in the air, the tops of the massive cliffs which separated the two areas of the underground were creating a darkened silhouette in front of the misty orange background. And on that background, in the far distance behind the cliffs, he could see the tips of a few tower-like structures.

Even though the image was a bit hazy, the sight of it hypnotized him for a few seconds. Only now has he properly realized how much the monsters have progressed on their own in this place. Although it is true they had magic to aid them, still, this was seriously comparable to many human-made structures. Ah, humans. They and their fancy glowing skyscrapers.

Snapping out of the trance, the person averted his gaze and continued in his path, proceeding to walk into the new and unknown region.

...

Crossing one more narrow wooden bridge, he soon arrived to a small cave tunnel. This one in particular was flooded...

Eh, still better than magma, he thought to himself, as he stepped into the shallow body of water, his large momentum making the water splash all over the place. The corridor was like a canal, with the water lying still in the middle, and with many large cyan glowing flowers scattered inside it and also around the two top shelves. The ground and the walls were spangled with dozens of tiny glowing crystals and glowing grass and... well, everything appeared to be glowing. Perhaps that's why it wasn't totally pitch black in here. Heck, even the air appeared to be glowing. There were these strange yellow, diamond-shaped particles of varying sizes floating about everywhere he looked - and occasionally, they all faded at once, as if they were blinking. What even were these...

Examining the sight and slowly wading through the water, he listened to the distant muffled hum of water and the noise of something else, something unclear but very close. It was nearly disturbing how close the constant noise and hum appeared to be. Suddenly, just as he was about to pass the last glowing flower, he twitched massively, nearly tripping. He briskly faced the other end of the cave, positive he just heard a whisper right behind him. Startled, he scanned the tunnel to the best of his abilities and tried to pinpoint the origin of the whisper. He even turned around once more to make sure he wasn't getting ambushed or anything. After all, he is in the realm of magic now. He can no longer rely on his sturdy body alone. But despite his best efforts, he couldn't see anything. The canal was empty.

And then, he heard another echoing whisper, coming from below. Finally realizing the location of its origin, he bowed to meet his face with the petals of a cyan glowing flower, which wobbled as it kept on emitting a series of hums. Moving his head closer, he could now clearly hear the individual words:

_"... hmmm... if I say my wish... You promise you won't laugh at me?"_

He listened. It almost sounded like the recording of a real person. It was only very slightly distorted and reverberated. He has never seen or heard of a plant like this before. Truth be told, this is the first time he is visiting this place. He should not be so surprised that the flora is different here. Still, this was incredibly interesting. He straightened his pose and swiftly walked towards the next flower, wondering if that one can "speak" too. He once again bowed and gave its petals a brief listen.

_"Where oh where could that child be...? I've been looking all over for them... **Hee hee hee. THAT's not true. She'll find another kid, and instantly forget about you. You'll NEVER see her again.** "_

He blinked in confusion. This one appeared to be a recording of two different, yet similar voices, and again, he did not understand the context of it at all. He approached the next one:

_"Someday, I'd like to climb this mountain we're all buried under. Standing under the sky, looking at the world all around... That's my wish."_

It was the same voice as the one from the beginning. That confused him even more. He stood up, rushing towards the next flower. This time, he heard laughter again:

_"... hey, you said you wouldn't laugh at it!"_

And the last flower...

_"Sorry, it's just funny... That's my wish, too."_

Interesting. It appeared to be some sort of a story, or a conversation between two random individuals. Though, that weird shaky two-voice nonsense was still a bit confusing. Truth be told, it gave him the chills. Listening to it, it was as if someone was shouting directly into his ear, instead of talking from afar. And the message was also rather sinister. Who is the woman this voice was speaking of? And who were the two passers chatting about stars?

Never mind that for a second, he wanted to try this himself. It appeared that these flowers can record any random sound they hear around them, and due to the creepy one, he deduced that these messages can also be overwritten. Or so he thought. Wanting to test his hypothesis, he stood up, aiming to try it with the creepy flower, as that one appeared to be the odd one out, but right before he turned around, he spotted something strange on the wall in front of him.

What he assumed up to that point to be just a random arrangement of a few brightly glowing crystals on that wall turned out to be a sign with symbols on it.

He walked towards it and examined it. The writing appeared to be very ancient and damaged. It was engraved into the plaque and backlit with some cyan glowing substance. Maybe more crystals. Maybe some glowing sand or water. Who knows. The plaque read:

_However... There is a prophecy. The angel... The one who has seen the surface... They will return. And the underground will go empty._

Huh. He didn't know anything about this prophecy. Or... any prophecy for that matter. It must have been created after the monsters were sealed. He also found it very ambiguous. Regardless of whether this prophecy came true or not, the monsters are free. But he has also noticed the darker sub-context it had. And he was very glad that THAT didn't come true. Heh... as if any prophecy ever came true. Haha...

...

He got back up again. With the hypothesis still in mind, he walked back towards the particular flower. Ducking in front of it with a great effort, he gave the recording one more listen.

It just didn't make sense. It was almost as if the previous conversation, the one which spanned the rest of the flowers in this area, was overwritten at this single spot.

Taking the liberty, he leaned closer towards the petals and uttered a quiet but clearly audible "test" into it, just as the flower laughed at him with the vile, high-pitched voice.

...

_test test test test_

Hypothesis confirmed.

Lifting himself up and continuing with his original plan, he finally reached some dry land, which happened to be covered with more glowing grass. In a corner, he saw another one of those large cyan echoing flowers.

_"You aren't gonna tell my parents about this, are you?"_

Another random message.

This spot was also a dead end. He looked around. On the other side of the room, he saw a possible exit. It looked like a collapsed wall leading into a really tight, pitch-black cave, filled with nothing but faintly glowing crystals. Welp, this is gonna be fun.

**([♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNTwYzoFzck))**

It was like a maze. Plus, the crystals were extremely dim. Though, after a while, he found something that looked like a usable lantern. He tried it. Suddenly, light everywhere. All of the surrounding crystals lit up. Great!

...  
  
Oh god now they're fading again. This was draining his sanity. Two millennia and even the most patient person gets tired. After a while, he stumbled upon another board filled with text:

_Without candles or magic to guide them Home, the monsters used crystals to navigate._

Makes sense...

Hold up... 'without magic?' What the heck is he reading anyways? This place is gonna give him a headache.

The next room finally contained some permanent light sources. And he followed the only thing he could see - the glowing grass on the ground. As he was walking through the cavern, he couldn't help but to feel this... he didn't even know how to describe it. This is where the monsters used to live. In a total darkness like this.  
  
...'without magic'... that probably had to be right after the war. In any case, the feeling wasn't going away. It felt as if time itself was passing at a much slower rate in here. It was almost tranquil.

...

He arrived at a crossroad with a glowing mushroom in the middle. The dim cave continued forward. To the right was an exit leading out of the cave system. He could continue that way, or... keep exploring the cave.

...

Of course there is never enough exploring! He took the straight route. He discovered a few more round rooms with glowing mushrooms, but... that was about it. He soon reached a dead end. Sighing from disappointment, he proceeded to return.

Strangely, now that he was facing a backward direction, he noticed some light in the distance straight ahead, and it wasn't coming from the glowing grass. In fact, the path leading to that place wasn't even lit up. It was almost like a secret tunnel!

**([♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i7Hj1fAYN4))**

Nevermind.

**([♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNTwYzoFzck))**

He waltzed out of there as if he saw nothing. If there was any monster he wasn't actually excited to see, it was... _them_. No need to engage in single-digit IQ conversations.

Taking the exit route this time, he finally walked out of the dark cave. The road ahead was pretty empty. There were two waterfalls rushing over it though, carving a series of channels into it. They must have been here for quite some time, to sandpaper the path down like that, he guessed.

In the places where the water wasn't present, he found more ancient writings. At least, he thought they were ancient, given their state. And on the wall above, he has noticed rows of those same weird echo-y flowers from earlier. Unfortunately, he couldn't really reach them. And besides, they were so close to each other, they were stuck in an endless sonic feedback loop. All he could hear from them was a mixture of evil chants and white noise.

He has also noticed another weird phenomena in the air at this place. This time, it wasn't a bunch of synchronized yellow blinking diamond shaped things. Instead, it was just some occasional white pulsing starlets flying around. These did behave more like insects, but he still wasn't sure what they were exactly.

Nonetheless, he began reading the plaques, one by one:

 _We will remain trapped down here forever._  
There is no way a human could come here.  
But this cursed place has no entrances or exits.

Hold on, is he reading them in reverse? Oops. He quickly walked towards the furthest one to begin again.

_Hurt, beaten and fearful for our lives, we surrendered to the humans.  
Seven of their greatest magicians sealed us underground with a magic spell._

...

The person laughed internally. Heh, they really believed it. They never questioned it. Silly monsters. Ah, this is just so perfect.

He kept on reading.

_Anything can enter through the seal, but only beings with a powerful soul can leave._

Eh??? How did they figure THAT out? How old is this text? He would understand if they had this knowledge now, but thousands of years ago? Man, this is getting seriously interesting.

_There is only one way to reverse this spell. If a huge power, equivalent to seven human SOULs, attacks the barrier... It will be destroyed._

...

Either they're good at figuring out things, or... nah, that's impossible.

He came back at the three plaques he read earlier. "There is no way a human could come here."

...

Does this prove these texts are that old? But then... how did they learn the rest... What is this plot hole even??? WHAT IS HE MISSING? ARGGGHHHH!

...

He calmed himself down. He remembered that the very first plaque he read also connected to this continuous text. The one about the prophecy. Well... what does he know, maybe when they used the seven souls to break it, it temporarily formed into an angel-like shape or something, who knows. He chuckled at the thought. He will later have to ask anyone if they saw an angel or something, just for fun.

With his mind absolutely overloaded with questions again, he proceeded forwards.

**([♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx102NjYwqk))**

He arrived to another crossroad again. He grew a certain hatred of them at this point. Looking down the left path, he could see... nothing. Just a room with a river flowing through it. There was also a box on the ground. The same one he saw near the beginning somewhere. He didn't expect much, but he opened it anyways. It contained the same old junk the previous box, arranged in the exact same way. He wondered though...

...

The hair was there. Wow, finally something useful! The humans would pay billions for this!

...

He stood up again. The path straight ahead was once again filled with too much stuff, so he rather took the other one - the one on the right. He walked inside.

_"Whoa there! I've got some neat junk for sal- ..."_

Huh, a turtle person or something.

_"Eh..."_

...?

_"You look... familiar..."_

Wait what...

_"Tell me... How many humans do wear the emblem of our kingdom up there?"_

The person looked at his shirt, which the monster was pointing at. Frankly, he kind of forgot about that.

"Uhh... tell me, what are you selling?" He asked, hoping to avoid the question.

_"Oh sorry about that! You just looked familiar. Please, take a look at my wares!"_

Great. Now he has to buy something. And the guy's selling only monster food anyways.

"Eh... no thanks, I'm not really interested in any of this."

 _"Well, in any case, thanks for stopping!"_ The monster said.

He said his goodbyes and quickly made his way towards the exit. The atmosphere was still very awkward. He was never good at communicating with others. Or maybe he was... a long time ago... bleh, as if he still recalled anything from those times at all.

Just as he was about to clear the room though, the monster spoke up again.

_"Hold on! I recognize you."_

The person halted.

He tried to ease into it: "Err, alright, I admit it, I'm a human."

_"Ha, I know that already! I mean I know you..."_

_"You're a wizard!"_

_"We've met already."_

...

NOPE nope nope _nononononono_

Buy  
Sell  
Talk  
◉ Exit

The wizard rushed out of the cave, completely stupefied. His cover was just blown off. He was definitely not anticipating this. Not that it mattered too much, but it shocked him nonetheless. So someone remembers him after all...

Making a sharp rightward turn, he found himself in a small open area with many diverging paths. There was a tiny pond in the middle, with another one of those yellow starry objects next to it.

Not taking a second to think, he took the straight route. It led him to a path across a lake of cyan-glowing water, with a gaping hole in the middle. He calculated his steps, picked up maximum speed and flashed through the place, culminating in one large acrobatic jump across the gap. A tiny yellow bird monster sitting nearby was not pleased.

The strange reflective shine of the cyan water continued illuminating his steps and giving the cave around him a mysterious aqueous ambiance, as he kept the course, running and sprinting past more side paths, more boxes, more monsters, more random objects like telescopes and whatnot, shattered crystals with cheese sediments on them near mouse holes, echo flowers, yellow stars, reeds... LOTS of reeds, until finally arriving at a long winding wooden platform, sort of like a catwalk, laid over an extensive body of water. This particular water, unlike the previous one, wasn't glowing. Strange.

Figuring he had run far enough, he decided to stop and walk the rest of the way. Also because he feared the planks might break beneath him if he jumped too much. However, he didn't even make it to the very end before realizing that this was a dead end. The path continued in the distance across the lake, but there seemed to be no way to get across...

He quickly scanned his surroundings. Returning now would be awkward. He walked back a few steps, to the place where the catwalk approached the wall to the right, and from there, he jumped and swung himself up and onto the second path above the former. He saw this upper path earlier. It was lined with stone pillars, and was clearly connecting the two sides of the lake. Now standing on the higher ground, he polished himself and began making his way around the lake. There, he carefully climbed back down so as to not shatter the planks below him. Some of the pillars had strange burn marks on them...

**([♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNTwYzoFzck))**

Behind him, he once again saw a series of clay tablets, with glowing crystals embedded into them. Just like those from earlier.

The crystals spelled out:

 _"The war of humans and monsters."_  
Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed that they had nothing to fear.  
Humans are unbelievably strong. It would take the SOUL of nearly every monster...  
... just to equal the power of a single human SOUL.

He felt as if by skipping some of those previous alleys, he missed out on some important narrative; this wasn't really connecting to the ones he read earlier... but he can't return now. He will make sure to remember these though. The wizard quickly finished the text:

 _But humans have one weakness. Ironically it is the strength of their soul._  
Its power allows it to persist outside the human body, even after death.  
If a monster defeats a human, they can take its SOUL.

_A monster with a human SOUL...  
A horrible beast with unfathomable power._

The last plaque illustrated this. The wizard reflected upon that picture for a moment. Then, he continued.

He met more of those echoing flowers from earlier. There was also another telescope in here. He figured it was for observing the details of the ceiling. He could see it all very clearly even with a naked eye. Well... he does have special eyes after all. There was also another plaque in here which read: "WISHING ROOM".

Out of curiosity, he listened to the flowers again, though they were hiding nothing important.

The next cave contained a small waterfall that was generating a stream, splitting the cave in two. And in the middle of the stream, there were four tough looking plants lined up in a single row. He jumped over the water, figuring he'd just end up sinking the flowers if he tried using them as a bridge. They looked strong, but not that strong.

Nearby was another plaque. It read:

_If an error is made, the Bell Blossom can call Bridge Seeds back to where they started._

No way? He tried touching the bell flower. It rang, and suddenly, the flowers placed in the river disappeared.

He turned around, and there they were, on the ground placed in a square pattern, with closed petals. Whoa magic!

He had no time to play around with these however. He walked over a short bridge, through which the path continued, and as he did so, he briefly spotted a wooden sign across the said bridge, which was placed on a tiny island in the middle of a pool fed by the stream. There was nothing written on it. Nothing from his side, that is. He was pretty sure that the other side was hiding something extremely important. No time to investigate though. He must press on.

Another seed plant bridge ensued. He jumped over the flowing water with ease. He didn't understand why the monsters had the need to utilize these flowery bridges. Perhaps... some prefer to stay dry? Heh, but then, what would they be doing in this wet environment to begin with?

He continued along the path, coming across more random reed patches, when he found himself near yet another interesting flooded section. It was generated by a nearby waterfall... and had no bridge seeds on it. The wizard no longer understood the point of flower bridges. And also boulders. From the top of the waterfall, many semi-large boulders kept rushing down, across the walkway, and down into the abyss below to the left. They seemed to be doing so perpetually. Again, and again, and again... and again...

and again...

...

...where...

where are they all coming from?

He carefully stepped into the water. As he waded through it, the boulders kept banging against his feet, as well as against each other, getting deflected all over the place. He wasn't affected by this assault in the slightest. It was strong enough to knock a smaller person over though.

What's the point of this again? Why are these boulders trying to knock him off? Is this some kind of a monster sport? A prank? ... A trap? And how is it... seemingly never-ending? Are these boulders getting teleported back up? Or... are they perhaps climbing back up? Yeah. That seems more reasonable, he figured. The thought made him chuckle. Only in this place does it make more sense to talk about walking boulders than about teleportation or some intricate perpetual machinery.

Man, who even paid these guys to do this?

On the other side of the waterfall, a box sat. Same as those other inter-dimensional-or-whatever boxes he's discovered before. And next to it a sign, which he gave a quick read. It appeared to be made by someone who very much dislikes boxes. He continued.

Walking further, he was met with one more surprise.

Another. Wooden. Booth. With. Snow. On. Its. Roof.

Man, he was SO ready to start incinerating these, just for the heck of it.

But he continued instead; he has wasted more than enough time already by getting mad over totally pointless things. And finally, his persistence was rewarded; the air temperature began changing again. To the right of his path, a small river flowed to: unknown. The wizard kept pace until the corridor ended, and there, he walked into...

**([♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLlNQtkDWLo))**

A titan of a cave. Cold air enveloped him and his eyes adjusted to the new light levels produced by the massive quanta of snow all around.

The ceiling stretched both tall and wide in all directions.

The snow was fresh. There was snow everywhere. It was snowing right now. Snow was piling up on his head.

There were pine trees everywhere.

A holly jolly Christmas town right ahead.

Just... what.

Suddenly, so much to do. Perhaps too much. He has decided to, approximately in this order: just casually walk around for a bit, explore the town, talk to a few monsters (which were oblivious to his identity of course), scratch his head at how the hell is the igloo teleporting him, tried entering a few public buildings, most notably the library (or rather "librarby"), where he personally bookmarked a few prints for later reading, then found out that everyone is packing and preparing for the surface, and then finally departed too.

He walked over a very long wooden bridge, which, as he quickly found out based on its resonance, was actually made of stone and was merely painted to look like it's made from wood, and on the other side of it, he encountered a bunch of weird snow formations, and also a wooden doghouse, with a sign next to it: " _Woof._ "

Next, he took a small detour out of curiosity. The things he came across were... kind of freakish. Starting with holes in the wall which contained many white shining blinking lights, through a mesmerizing view over the entire rest of this portion of the underground, all the way to a small cave that was resonating with... something strange. It wasn't comedic at all, actually. He felt the presence of a very strong magic in this place. It also reminded him of the previous area, with all of its glowing flora and such. Some more glowing mushrooms in this case. The cave ended with a wooden door sealed by magic, marked with the Delta Rune emblem.

He COULD try busting through it, buuuuuut...

The next area was some sort of an icy sliding puzzle. He arrived to it by taking a slide through a small forest patch, during which some snow fell on his head. The area after that contained many weird curling twisting derpy dog head snow sculptures. He could swear that the further he went, the crazier the things were becoming.

...

The rest wasn't very eventful. It was actually the calmest part of his journey yet. With no one around and everyone in their homes packing, the forest was starting to become eerily silent. Or maybe it has always been like this; he couldn't tell. He met one more snowman creature, one more box with another sign next to it (this time made by a box lover for a change), more dog booths (they actually looked like sentry outposts... it could be some sort of a local canine guard unit), one more of those wooden booths with snow on their roof, this time FINALLY existing in the correct biome, and at the very end... a stone wall made of purple rock, with an ornate arched door at the base, opened wide.

**([♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ_W8jrUjto))**

It was the same kind of rock that he somewhat remembered seeing at the beginning of his route, just where the barrier used to stand. He now recalled the two stone arcs that he went through at the very beginning, but paid no attention to back then. From what he remembered, at least one of them stood IN FRONT of the barrier...

Not that it mattered. It was just... strange. At this point, he started to have a better idea about who might have resided here before the monsters did. This entire cave was too elaborate, too brimming with life and magic, for it to be all caused just by the barrier. One does not simply explain the presence of an entire underground forest wholly adapted to virtually zero sunlight, with just the energy of seven (or was it eight?) human souls spread across mere two millennia...

He'd like to make a guess about their identity, but... he'd just be talking to himself. There's no one who can hear this internal conversation anyways.

Besides, now is not the time for such detective guesswork. He needs to find the damned hole. The source of a century of troubles for him and his fellow human friends. When the first child fell, everything changed.

Let's see then what lies behind this do-

god dammit it's that figure standing behind him again that he dared not to face last time, isn't it...

Everything went black for a split second.

_"heya again"_

...yep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it happened that our doodoo head protagonist in his rush completely missed the purple monster ferry. Lol.
> 
> ... Actually, he'd probably just end up crushing its skull. Yeah. It's good that he found his own way across the lake.
> 
> Also, did you catch it? The shop act menu Easter egg? That will become important for later.
> 
> Also also, I kiiiiinda forgot about his staff? In one of the previous chapters, he put it on his back, and then in this one, he took it off again. But I forgot to add it to his sprite in that weird "fake gameplay footage" video or whatever you could call it, so... just imagine that he's holding it in his right hand or something. I can't help being overly nitpicky about these sorts of things.


	8. The Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so we have finally reached the end of this act. But do not worry, this is just the beginning. There is so much more that awaits.
> 
> (This skeleton pun filled chapter has been brought to you by someone who sucks at making skeleton puns.)

"Pardon, did you just... teleport me?" He said, turning his head towards the unknown figure standing behind him, half surprised, half confused.

"nope. i teleported to you actually."

The wizard proceeded to slowly turn the rest of his body towards his stalker.

It was a child-sized adult male skeleton, wearing a severely stained blue winter hoodie, black sporting shorts and a pair of white slippers, plus a massive permanent grin plastered across the face.

"i figured it'd be better than sneaking up on you." He added, shrugging. He made it sound like sneaking up on people was his job.

"it's neat that you've noticed though. you're the first one actually. not that i teleport like that too often, but... uh..."

The wizard gazed back towards the tunnel guarded by the purple stone archway.

"nice... to meet you."

He didn't pay him any attention. He turned back around and entered the tunnel.

"whoa hold on! you can't just-" The skeleton creature yelled, but it wasn't very effective. Tsk, humans. No respect for private property whatsoever, always coming in without knocking and then proceeding to smash all the clay pots. He decided to follow them in.

"not to be a pain in the tailbone but this is trespassing. you don't even know who lives here."

The human kept ignoring him. This was probably the most anti-climatic encounter with a human he's ever had. At least in his current memory.

"well, rude. what's your name then? i'm sans. sans the skeleton."

...

"Avery."

"...hmm?"

"Avery Oldman."

...

"heh, is that supposed to be a pun?"

...

"because tibia honest, i'm a master at those."

"what do you call a-"

"You were saying something about teleportation?" The wizard cut him off.

"...heh, you're really blunt, aren't ya?"

"i've had severe doubts about you from the beginning, wondering whether or not i should halt you in your progress... but you seemed cool."

The wizard comically raised an eyebrow and looked down at him. "In what sense?"

"well i mean, you've had a weapon on you, yet you clearly strove to avoid all conflict down here. and you also jumped 7 stories from that castle. that was p cool."

The wizard stayed silent. The two were now approaching a wooden staircase. Moments later, they found themselves in the hallway of someone's house.

"see? i was telling you."

Scanning the place from where he stood, the wizard uttered but a single phrase: "Déjà vu."

"yeah i'm also feeling it." The skeleton chimed in. 

The wizard then made his way towards the front exit to enter a leaf-covered front porch. It was unclear where the leaves have fallen from, but a few paces away, a dead tree stood, with leaves scattered all around its base.

"Let me guess. This place is called Autumnland." He joked. "No wait. I remember. This is supposed to be 'Home'."

"it's technically called the ruins. home is the city that's located here. it's where monsterkind used to live before-"

"Yeah." He cut him off again and continued.

In the first turn, he took the left route, which brought him to a nice view of the said city. The architecture was very similar to the other one - New Home, but was purple instead of grayish. He then returned and took the second route.

He and the skeleton didn't speak much for a while after this. There was just a lot of walking. The tunnel began off with a series of identical rooms rotated in perspective, which were spirally connected and led them upward. After this, a room filled with some crumbling holes followed. Then some more relatively empty rooms (with no one in particular in them - though the walls were emitting frog-like noises), one room with an empty table and another tiny mouse hole, then some obvious deactivated spike traps and boulders, until finally...

a dead end.

The two arrived to a room riddled with floor cracks. There wasn't an inch of space left that wouldn't be considered a walking hazard.

"You were saying this place is called the Ruins?"

"yep."

"And... you suppose this is the correct route?"

"i don't even know what you're trying to find in here."

The wizard gazed at the floor with mild frustration. He tried putting some weight on a few of the cracked spots, but they crumbled right beneath him.

"I'm seeking the place where the fault in the barrier lies. The place through which the humans arrived here. Since all paths have led me to where I stand now, I do feel like this is the correct way to go."

"i dunno, i'd say you missed a few."

The wizard's face brightened. "Have you ever heard the song 'Turn down for what'?"

"what?"

**CRASH**

...

"err... you okay down there?"

...

"There's a sign saying 'do not step on the leaves'... Ah, here's the exit."

A few moments later, his figure emerged on the other side. He then looked at his skeletal partner.

"Coming too?"

"...eh, sure. i have nothing better to do anyways."

The skeleton climbed down and fell on top of the leaves.

"oops. sorry, sign."

Meanwhile, the wizard continued. After this, there were some more spiky traps, more crumbly floor, a literal Halloween trope of a bowl of candy free for the taking, resting on an elaborate stone pillar in one room, and then a very very VERY long corridor with also nothing in it, save for one pillar and some vines creeping across the walls. The wizard finished in front of another seeming dead end, this time composed of a field of floor spike traps. Some time during this, the skeleton caught up to him.

"Look at this. All of this... this exists to fend off the humans?"

"probably. i don't know much about puzzlemaking, but there should be hints scattered around for solving these. these traps are rather meant to slow you down." ... "and i think with this one specifically, you can just walk over it and the spikes will recede. it's pressure plate activated or something."

The puzzle was fairly easy. Especially with the spikes already extended and revealed. It just required some trial and error.

A few more puzzling rooms with roomy puzzles in them later and the two arrived to what appeared to be a true end. The purple stone area ended with another arch and the next room was almost completely dark, save for a tiny illuminated spot in the middle, filled with grass. Standing on it, the wizard looked directly up. It wasn't the clear sky illuminating this patch, it wasn't the barrier either (which was gone now anyways). It was... some sort of strange residual shine in the rock above his head. It didn't make much sense to him, but it could be the same thing as with the waterfall crystals. After all, the 'Ruins'... that entire area was a cave too, yet it was fully illuminated. There was one more exit ahead.

He walked into it, this time passing through a gray arch, just like the one at the very beginning of this underground system, and there he saw it. The shine was really, really bright. It was a patch of golden flowers, bathed in nothing but clear sunlight. As he approached, his steps echoed and he soon began to hear the distant sound of birds chirping above the ground. Just as he was about to step into the flower patch, some of the flowers wiggled and... one disappeared into the ground.

"so. didya find it?"

He didn't reply. He just kept staring at the flowerbed.

"Hmm... ever heard of teleporting flowers?" He answered moments later.

"sounds like my worst nightmare."

...

Finally, the wizard straightened himself, with arms akimbo.

"Well, I'd consider this mission of mine successful."

"you were on a mission?"

"Kinda. Wasn't it obvious?"

"well i dunno. lots of people like taking hikes... i never understood why. it's so much better to just nap. fills your HP more too."

The wizard fiddled with something in his pocket. He then pulled out some sort of a tiny metallic device.

"I don't have a signal here. So I gotta improvise."

Saying that, he threw the device up in the air with full force. It almost reached the top of the cave. As it was about to fall back down, it began to smoothly glide upwards, completely contrary to its original ballistic trajectory. At the very top, it followed the bright sunlight and disappeared behind the cave wall.

The wizard's hands dropped down. "That should do it."

"Let's head back, shall we." He turned around towards the skeleton again. "I'm eager to meet your friends now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know this chapter would turn out to be so short. On the flip side, less boring filler dialogue for you.
> 
> Also, interesting to note, Sans can't teleport in this area yet. It's brand new to him. He still needs to find all the shortcuts. Also, one thing I consistently keep forgetting to address is the wizard's staff. It's kinda a recurring joke for me now, isn't it. Currently, it's back in his staff holder.


End file.
